Keeping employees happy, engaged and interested is paramount. The diversity of Council responsibility means there is a great diversity in the roles of Council officers.
At Glen Eira, it is acknowledged that employment is about a lot more than the salary package. It is a documented fact that people are engaged by a number of aspects of their role, not least of which is the sense that their work is worthwhile.
The most commonly cited factors affecting engagement*:
- trust and integrity
- nature of the job
- ability to align individual effort with company
performance - career growth opportunities
- pride in the organisation
- relationships with co workers
- personal development
- relationship with immediate line manager.
* The Talent Powered Organization by Peter Cheese, Robert J Thomas and Elizabeth Craig 2008, Kogan
“We recognise that employees need to feel they are making a difference,” said Director Community Services Peter Jones. “People come to work for more than the pay, they come for the experience of contributing to society.”
A major focus on the community and the environment is part of every council’s raison d’être, providing councils with a natural advantage over many other organisations in terms of opportunities for staff to ‘give back’.
According to CEO Andrew Newton, the scale of Glen Eira is very important.
“People don’t live in municipalities of 129,000,” he said. “We live in neighbourhoods. When auctioneers talk about ‘location, location, location’ they are really saying that the value of a property depends on what is around it as much as what is inside it.
“The community depends on Council to provide and nourish all the facilities for a safe, healthy and satisfying life. The work we do really matters and we like to think that we make a difference.”
